NEWTOWN, Conn. — Newtown observed Christmas amid piles of snow-covered teddy bears, long lines
of stockings and heaps of flowers as volunteers manned a 24-hour candlelight vigil in memory of the
20 children and six educators killed at an elementary school just 11 days before the holiday.

Well-wishers from across the country showed up on Christmas morning to hang ornaments on
memorial Christmas trees while police officers from across the state took extra shifts to direct
traffic, patrol the town and give local police a break.

“It’s a nice thing that they can use us this way,” Ted Latiak, a police detective from
Greenwich, Conn., said yesterday morning, as he and a fellow detective, each working a half-day
shift, came out of a store with bagels and coffee for other officers.

The expansive memorials throughout town have become a gathering point for residents and visitors
alike. A steady stream of residents, some in pajamas, relit candles that had been extinguished in
an overnight snowstorm. Others took pictures, dropped off toys and fought back tears at a huge
sidewalk memorial in the center of Newtown’s Sandy Hook section. The memorial is filled with
stuffed animals, poems, flowers, posters and cards.

In the morning, Newtown resident Joanne Brunetti watched over 26 candles that had been lighted
at midnight in honor of those slain at Sandy Hook Elementary School. She and her husband, Bill,
signed up for a three-hour shift and erected a tent to ensure that the candle flames wouldn’t go
out throughout the day.

“You have to do something and you don’t know what to do, you know? You really feel very helpless
in this situation,” she said. “People have been wonderful to everybody in Newtown, whether you were
part of what happened or not. My thought is if we were all this nice to each other all the time,
maybe things like this wouldn’t happen.”

At a town-hall memorial, Faith Leonard waved to people driving by and handed out Christmas
cookies, children’s gifts and hugs to anyone who needed something.

“I guess my thought was if I could be here helping out, maybe one person would be able to spend
more time with their family or grieve in the way they needed to,” said Leonard, who drove alone to
Newtown from Gilbert, Ariz., to volunteer on Christmas morning. “I know they’ve been inundated with
support and that’s great, but it’s always nice to have a present to open on Christmas Day.”

Julian Revie played
Silent Night on a piano on the sidewalk at the downtown memorial. Revie, from Ottawa,
Ontario, was in the area visiting at the time of the shootings. He canceled his plans to go to
Australia, found a piano online and chose to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day playing for the
people of Newtown.

“It was such a mood of respectful silence,” said Revie, who planned to leave the piano behind. “
But yesterday being Christmas Eve and today being Christmas Day, I thought now it’s time for some
Christmas carols for the children.”

Many residents attended Christmas Eve services Monday evening and spent the morning at home with
their families. Others attended church services in search of a new beginning.

At St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church, which eight of the child victims of the massacre
attended, the pastor told parishioners, “Today is the day we begin everything all over again.”

Recalling the events at the school on Dec. 14, the Rev. Robert Weiss said: “The moment the first
responder broke through the doors, we knew good always overcomes evil. ...

“We know Christmas in a way we never ever thought we would know it,” he said. “We need a little
Christmas, and we’ve been given it.”

Police have yet to offer a theory about gunman Adam Lanza’s motive. The 20-year-old Newtown man
killed his mother in her bed before carrying out the massacre at the elementary school, then
killing himself.